Coming soon...

The next year will see much cultural and artistic activity from major projects such as the centenary development at Tate Britain to the international Diaspora Music Village festival across London next summer. Oginia Tabisz asked key cultural figures what they are most looking forward to over the next 12 months

 "I am very much looking forward to the opening, in November, of the new British Galleries at the V&A. The Galleries will provide a wonderful opportunity for us to chart the evolution of British design between 1500 and 1900. This country has made an enormous contribution to the development of design and is still at the forefront of that process.

My other choice would be the new Baltic Centre in Gateshead, due to open next March. The Baltic Centre will provide one of the biggest contemporary art spaces in Europe right at the heart of the regeneration area of Gateshead Quays. Other developments in the area - the opening of the Baltic Millennium Bridge in the middle of this month and the Music Centre in Gateshead - promise to be equally exciting." Baroness Blackstone, minister of state for the arts.

 "These are exciting times for the arts with major investment of lottery funding and several key building projects coming to fruition over the next 12 months. The refurbishment of the Birmingham Hippodrome will create a pivotal new arts centre in the Midlands and a home for Birmingham Royal Ballet. Theatre Royal Stratford East in London's East End will reopen installed with the very latest technology, improved access and public spaces. Amongst other significant initiatives, the Arts Council has invested £40 million in Creative Partnerships establishing creative links between young people and artists across the country." Gerry Robinson, chairman, Arts Council of England.

 "The wonderfully modernist Artist's House in Salisbury where art is encountered in a domestic setting."Edmund de Waal, potter.

 "The Ed Ruscha retrospective at MOMA Oxford. I have always loved his work because it seemed to offer a new direction in art in the 60s. A figurative painter whose work is somehow abstract, his use of text is highly visual while his use of images is profoundly literate. Astonishingly, this will be his first major show in Britain. Recognition of the contribution of west, as opposed to east coast American artists to postwar contemporary art is long overdue." Patricia Bickers, editor, Art Monthly.

 "The north east has been neglected for too long; the revamp of the former Baltic flour mill as a centre for contemporary art should do for Newcastle what the Guggenheim does for Bilbao. Though the look will be more Tate Modern: in Britain we like our art to be dressed in overalls not decked out in designer finery!"Desmond Shawe-Taylor, director, Dulwich Picture Gallery.

 "Martin Scorsese's film The Gangs of New York. American mainstream cinema is in a desperately impoverished period and it is a chance for one of the few great artists working in film to return to what he understands best." David Hare, playwright.

 "The Imperial War Museum North by Daniel Libeskind - a new way of approaching the presentation of ideas and objects in an architectural space." Claire Wilcox, curator of Radical Fashion, V&A.

 "The opening concert of the Kurtag Festival in April 2002, Gyorgy Kurtag and his wife Marta will be performing his work Jatekok Games on two pianos." Karsten Witt, chief executive, South Bank Centre.

 "The refurbished Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and the Manchester City Art Gallery designed by Sir Michael Hopkins. These developments in the north of England will be of tremendous significance in developing a strong regional culture." Charles Saumarez Smith, director, National Portrait Gallery.

 "The one-off screening in the desert outside LA of Douglas Gordon's Five Year Drive By in which the artist has slowed down a section of John Ford's classic western The Searchers. If you watched it all the way through, it would last for the five years of John Wayne's search in the film." Susan Ferleger Brades, director, Hayward Gallery.

 "The final of Masterprize, the international composers' competition at the Barbican, with the five finalists' works being played by the London Symphony. Masterprize is all about creating access to contemporary classical music by encouraging young living composers and audiences to re-establish a vibrant and dynamic relationship" Roger Lewis, managing director and programme controller, Classic FM.

 "Pina Bausch - her work reaches a much wider audience than usually comes to see dance and she has been a huge influence on a whole generation of dance and theatre makers. The piece the company is bringing, Masurca Fogo, is a relatively recent creation (1998) and will surprise many of her fans with it's light-hearted celebration of life and love - this is an optimistic work that will bring some sunshine to a dark February night." Alistair Spalding, director of programming, Sadler's Wells.

 "Tate Modern's May 2002 Picasso exhibition - the great unavoidable genius of the 20th century." David Lan, artistic director, Young Vic.

 "The cultural and artistic diversity that makes London world leader in the arts has inspired the remarkable Diaspora Music Village festival next summer. Over 100 visiting international artists and 250 London artists will perform in 20 sites across the city, giving voice to the creative forms that arise when cultures or faiths collide. Music rooted in age-old traditions will share the stage with contemporary hybrid work." Lady Hollick, chairwoman, London Arts

 "There will be major developments in the theatre during the next 12 months, such as who will be the new artistic director of the RNT, who will follow the Almeida's successful duo, Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid, and what effect the RSC's new plans will have not only in London and Stratford but nationwide. However, for me the long overdue free admission to all our national galleries (to take effect in November) must be seen as the single most important action of the year. Loud applause for the DCMS for making good their promise to art lovers and those, particularly the young, who will discover the world of art for the first time without having to pay for the privilege." Thelma Holt, theatre producer.

 "ethicstv.com - an international forum for art established by the artist Anita Sieff, where communication becomes part of the artistic process and social sculpture."Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, artists.

 "I very much hope that Welsh National Opera's new production of Beethoven's Leonore will be a major event of the new season. Leonore has not been staged in the UK for about 30 years. It is a magnificent piece - truly Beethovenian in its range, power and emotional drive - which deserves to be as widely known as its more famous later reincarnation as Fidelio. It is a rare masterpiece." Anthony Freud, general director, Welsh National Opera.

 "Donald Judd and Barnett Newman are must-sees at Tate Modern (September 2002). Contrary to the perception of them as cool minimalists the shows will surprise people by revealing that they were also great sensualists. This will be the first substantial show of Judd in this country. He will come to be seen as a visionary of our time."Sheena Wagstaff, head of exhibitions and displays, Tate Modern.

 "Aelbert Cuyp exhibition at the National Gallery (February - May 2002) is unexpectedly topical. Cuyp's dreamy idylls of happy cattle in cool northern landscapes all bathed in golden Italian light, have beguiled the English for 300 years. After BSE, foot and mouth and the loss of the countryside, it is a dream we need more than ever." Neil MacGregor, director, National Gallery.

 "The centenary development at Tate Britain and the British galleries at the V&A are going to show the history of the arts in Britain in a way that has never been attempted before. Together they will be a revelation to British and overseas visitors alike."Mark Jones, director, Victoria and Albert Museum and Stephen Deuchar, director, Tate Britain.